Njangali School gives girls hope
Students of Njangali Girls Secondary School carrying out an experiment in a new lab
By Pascal Kwesiga
FLORENCE Spetume Njangali, the first female ordained priest had a vision for the girl-child. Twenty-seven years after her death, a school that was named after her is living up to this vision.
Canon Njangali Girls Secondary School which was named after Njangali has become a model school for orphaned and bright girls from poor families.
The school is redefining itself to focus on sciences following the construction of its first laboratory.
President Yoweri Museveni launched the school’s first science laboratory yesterday.
“As the A’ level pioneer students gear up for national exams, this fully fledged laboratory will help girls offering science subjects compete with candidates from other schools,” Bishop Nathan Kyamanywa, the founder of the school says.
He adds that the school is promoting a culture of encouraging girls to do sciences.
Rekindling lost hope
Oliver Kanyunyuzi lost her father when she was in senior two. After her father’s death, the 18-year old girl was left with two options; to drop out of school or get married.
“My mother did not have money and she asked me to drop out of school,” she says.
Kanyunyuzi who hails from Kyebando village in Kibaale district pleaded with the school administration to allow her continue her with school.
“I decided to try out this option because I did not want to drop out of school or get married,” she says.
Luckily, Kanyunyuzi was placed under Jeremiah Orphan Ministries of Bunyoro Kitara diocese.
Under the ministries, orphaned and bright children from poor families are assisted to find people who can sponsor their education.
As she prepares to sit for her senior six final exams this year, Kanyunyuzi cannot hide her gratitude for the school that she says has brought her closer to realising her dream.
Kanyunyunzi is not alone, Robinah Nyamaizi, 18 left her former school to join Canon Njangali when she was in Senior two in 2007.
She says her father told them he did not have money to pay school fees.
“Someone advised him to come to the diocese and look for help. He was told to pay half of the school fees but has never paid and they have never chased me away,” Nyamaizi says.
After completing Senior four in 2009, Nyamaizi, who hails from Dwoli cell in Bujumbura division, Hoima Municipality, was uncertain whether she would continue to Senior five because her father had not cleared fees arrears.
“The headteacher called my father asking him to tell me to pick my admission letter for Senior five,” she says.
The two girls are just part of hundreds of girls who drop out of school due lack of school fees but have been rescued at Canon Njangali SS, a brain child of Bishop Kyamanywa .
Kyamanywa says he hatched the plan to start a model girls school under the Anglican Church foundation before he was elected bishop.
He established the school when he served as education officer for the diocese between 1989-1992.
Kyamanywa who was appointed Bishop in 2002 says he got funds from a friend in the UK to start the school.
He notes that Canon Njangali Girls SS was established on strong Christian core values, discipline and high academic standards.
“The idea was not to make money because we did not want to limit our vision to money,” he says.
The school has an enrollment of 251 students and 28 teachers. It has six classrooms, two laboratories, and a revision room, a multi-purpose hall with a sitting capacity of 700-800 people, a standby generator and a computer laboratory.
Located near the diocese headquarters in Duhaga, the school has three water tank reservoirs and a borehole to ensure a constant supply of water.
The headteacher, Esau Muhumuza explains that the school runs a normal secondary school curriculum enriched with Bible study, home management packages and practical agriculture.
The bishop says there is a plan to construct two new dormitories and two staff houses.
Challenges
The head teacher says one of the major challenges is changing the student’s attitudes towards science subjects and poor reading culture.
Another challenge, Muhumuza notes is the inability for parents to pay up the school fees despite the fact that they want to educate their children.
He says: “Sometimes, innocent, bright and disciplined students drop out of school after being impregnated during holidays.”
Who is Canon Njangali?
Florence Spetume Njangali was born in Parajwoki village in Hoima Municipality in 1908 to Nyakwebara and Eva Kacungira Amooti.
She began school in 1920 as one of the Pioneer students of Duhaga Girls’ Boarding, a church founded school.
In 1928, Njangali was appointed a
teacher and later promoted to deputy head mistress of the school.
In 1938, she became headteacher. In 1942, Njangali enrolled for a two-year lay reader’s course at Bishop Tucker Theological Seminary in Mukono.
In 1953, she was appointed a member of the Native Anglican Church Synod in Uganda. During her time, the Synod objected to the ordination of women.
In 1957, she resigned her position at Duhaga Girls and returned to Bishop Tucker Theological College for an ordination course.
She was not easily accepted in class by her male counterparts.
Upon graduation in 1960, Njangali was posted to Ankole Diocese as a church commissioned worker before being transferred to Rwenzori diocese in 1965 and then Bunyoro diocese in 1972.
Despite her good track record, Njangali was denied ordination on grounds that she was a woman.
However, 1973 when her former classmate, Bishop Yustus Ruhindi, ordained her as the first deaconess in East and Central Africa.
In 1980, after taking a close look at Njangali’s ministry as a deacon, Bunyoro Kitara diocese decided to make the ordination of women into priesthood as an official practice of the church.
Njangali passed on January 20, 1984.
